Getting Ahead in the Kitchen

On Sunday mornings, I typically spend time in the kitchen getting food ready for the week ahead. 

Making biscuits on a Sunday morning. 

I always bake homemade somethings for the school lunchbox be it biscuits, a slice or, very occasionally, a cake. A sample of that baking is shared at Sunday's afternoon tea that we always have with Grandma and Granddad on their weekly visit. While the baking is happening, I also roast some nutritious veg to have in omelettes for brekkie and toss into healthy lunchtime salads. The oven is already on so I put it to good use! I prepare everything I need for dinner Sunday night and extras are frozen for later in the week. A homemade vanilla ice-cream is whizzed up on Sundays too. A couple of scoops makes an easy weekday dessert.  My kitchen is a busy place on Sunday mornings!

These are some of the things I regularly make on Sundays:

 Simple slices like this one and this one.

Bite-sized biscuits for the cookie jars.

 Trays of veggies ready for roasting.

Pasta sauces for spaghetti bolognese and lasagna.

Mini meatballs for the freezer.

Yummy homemade pizzas.

Salads, like this one, for weekday lunches.

Ice-cream mixture ready for the freezer.

Spending some of my Sunday preparing food for the week ahead saves time on busy days because there's food in the fridge, freezer and biscuit jars ready and waiting. It saves money because I don't need to buy packaged snacks or takeaways for dinner and having a salad or two in the fridge saves on buying lunches. It saves energy because I'm making full use of the oven when it's already on and those frozen extras just need reheating. It saves my energy too if there comes a night when I simply don't feel like cooking!

I think that Sunday's homemade foods are an investment in our health too. I know exactly what I put in them. Basic ingredients and no artificial anythings. I minimise the sugar content of the sweeter foods  (The ice-cream we make has just 40g of sugar in it as opposed to the 150g the original recipe calls for and we all still like it!). I add nourishing veggies into everything I can and those extra roasted veggies, baked along with the biscuits, boost the nutrition and fibre of simple breakfasts. A great return on the time I spend in my kitchen on Sunday mornings.

What foods do you prepare ahead of time for your families?

Meg

Sweetly-Scented Rose Geranium

One of my favourite plants in the garden is coming in to bloom now that Spring is here. 





 

 A little cluster of Rose Geranium flowers.

 

While its little pink flower clusters are very pretty, they are not the reason I love this beautiful plant. Rather, it is the strong musky-rose scent, released by this geranium's leaves, that make it a favourite. Whenever I brush past it, or gently rub a leaf between my fingers, I catch a drift of its rosy perfume and breathe that in deeply. So beautiful!



Little buds forming on my Rose Geranium.

 

My Rose Geranium grows really well in a position where it receives lots of morning sun but is somewhat sheltered in the afternoon. The soil where it grows is free draining and so I just give my Rose Geranium a deep watering whenever I feel the soil is a touch dry. Definitely, a low maintenance plant in my garden!



Lots of fragrant leaves on my Rose Geranium.

 



There are many different kinds of scented geraniums, from those whose leaves smell like roses to those that are lemony or minty. I hope to add some different scents to my garden by swapping cuttings of my Rose Geranium for cuttings of some of the other-scented types.

 

Do you grow scented geraniums? If so, what's your favourite?

 

Meg

 

 



 

 

Here & Now 15

It is getting very close to the end of the school term here and I am now impatiently waiting for the school holidays to begin. We have had our fair share of illness this past term and so I am hopeful that our upcoming holidays will be filled with wellness and here-at-home happiness. Contentment that will no doubt come from days with no set plans that can unfold on spontaneous whims. 

 A gorgeous Grevillea flower on the tree outside our bedroom door.

A posy of pink sweet peas from the garden.

Bell-shaped blooms on the "Roaring Meg" climber.

A deep red geranium growing in a pot.

 A lollipop pink Grevillea flower.

Loving //  All the pretty pink and red flowers that are in bloom in our garden right now.
Eating //  Sweet, locally grown strawberries with a dollop of cream.
Drinking //  Fresh filtered water as often as I remember to.
Feeling //  Impatient for the holidays to begin after what has been a long school term.
Making //  A hand-stitched tote bag in chocolate brown linen with a soft cotton lining.
Thinking //  We need rain, and bucket loads of it, because it is so very dry here.
Dreaming //  Of warm Spring Sundays down by the river.

Sarah, over at Say, Little Hen, is hosting this lovely blog link-up once again. You can visit her and see her beautiful photos at the link above. You'll find others sharing their own Here & Nows for September there too. 

Meg